The suspect accused in a deadly shooting spree at spas in the Atlanta area is telling police it was not racially motivated.

Quoting police in the immediate aftermath of an event without qualification is a given.

But it is and always has been bad practice.

From WNYC in New York, this is on the media.

I'm Brooke Gladstone.

And I'm Bob Garfield. The shootings in Atlanta exposed what for many Americans was hiding in plain sight.

There is an erasure of the history of anti-Asian discrimination and violence in the U.S.

I cannot tell you how many times I've heard the phrase

I never knew that this happened.

Also, a Romeo and Juliet

that crosses the barrier of language.

Her high discourses, I will answer it.

But what I'm trebrivedo.

It's not to me she speaks.

It's all coming up after this.

From WNYC in New York, this is on the media. I'm Brooke Gladstone.

And I'm Bob Garfield. By now, the whole world knows that on Tuesday, Robert Long had a day.

He was pretty much fed up, and it then kind of at the end of his rope.

And yesterday it was a really bad day for him, and this is what he did.

The this, according to Cherokee County Sheriff's Office, Captain Jay Baker,

being allegedly gunning down eight people,

including six Asian women in three spas around Atlanta.

...